Smith plans perfect blend

Scotlands new manager has called in the experience of the old guard to help his talented youngsters make the step-up to international level, says Richard Wilson

IN with the old and in with the new. Walter Smith’s first Scotland squad has revealed which path he will be leading the national team down in the coming years, the direction he intends to follow. When the journey begins at the first squad get-together in Manchester next Sunday, there will still be room for the best emerging young talents, but they will not be thrust to the front too quickly. The old guard, the players who have been over the course so often that they know it by heart, will be the pillars of his squad, the columns that the team will come to lean on.

Where Berti Vogts talked of his “young boys”, Smith has called on experience to be his ally. He has firm intentions of doing not just what is best for Scotland, but what is best, too, for the players he will be managing, for